The film, "George Washington Carver", was an independent production of Bryant Productions, directed by Ben Parker and written by Robert L. Shurr. Dr. Carver appeared in the film. It was filmed with archaic equipment on a shoestring budget and was released by RKO in 1940. It was greeted with apathy. Copies of it seem to have disappeared

Summary

Original screenplay on the early life of George Washington Carver written in 1939 by Robert L. Shurr and Ben Parker, "Devil Cotton, or Dr. George Washington Carver." The rest of the collection is a scrapbook containing press releases, press items, and stills from the film

Cite as

Robert L. Shurr Script and Scrapbook for the Motion Picture "George Washington Carver", 1939, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

McBain has been an art supervisor for J. W. Thompson in Detroit, a creative consultant for Soft Sheen Products, and co-founder of Burrell McBain Advertising in Chicago. He donated these illustrations as examples of his creative work in 1985

Summary

Examples of advertisements by McBain for McDonald's, Marlboro, and a Chicago arts festival, "Black Folk Us"

Scrapbooks of comics depicting practical jokes, accidents, and a number of amusing and sometimes violent real-life situations. Inscription inside the front cover: "To Darling Effie from Does"(?). These comics probably satirize events of the time. The cartoons were produced in publications such as "Fliegende Blatter," "Puck," "Judge," "Life," "Pictorial Weeklies," and the "Sydney Bulletin." Several of the comics refer to Surrey and the "London Express" and appear to be English in origin. A few others have, perhaps, German and French origins

Evance was a merchant in Charles Town, South Carolina, according to Rudolf Loeser in an e-mail, 1/12/2011, who cited "The Papers of Henry Laurens," 2:212n. (Laurens, Henry (1972). Papers of Henry Laurens. editors: Philip May Hamer, George C Rogers, David R Chesnutt. Columbia, S.C.: Univ. of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1570034656. OCLC 63771927.)

Summary

A book of receipts for payments made by Thomas Evance to various individuals for purchases and payment of debts. Items listed include a bedstead, horses, rent, rum, food, books, rice, a wig, chimney construction, coal, freight for 32,000 shingles, wages as overseer of a "plantation at Santee" (South Carolina?), and "Two Negro's [sic] sent up this year" [as slaves?]

Cite as

Thomas Evance Receipt Book, 1754-1774, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Susie Paige, a Philadelphia bookseller, collected these materials over three decades. She sold them to the National Museum of American History in 1985. The collection is notable for the wide range of African American personalities and events depicted

Summary

31 greeting cards, 76 postcards, and other items, such as political literature, a Martin Luther King greeting card, and a high school diploma. All of the material has images or information concerning African Americans. The bulk of the material was produced after 1960, but some events and personalities portrayed date back to the turn of the century

Born in Washington, D.C., Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington rose to fame at Harlem's Cotton Club in the late 1920s. His career as a musician, composer and bandleader spanned more than 50 years. Among his many compositions are hundreds of short pieces and more ambitious extended works, including operas, ballets, musicals, concert pieces (such as "Black, Brown and Beige") and the "Sacred Concerts." Duke Ellington and his orchestra toured the United States and made frequent successful tours abroad. He was decorated with numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (presented by Pres. Nixon, 1969). Duke Ellington led his orchestra until his death, when it was taken over by his son, Mercer

Summary

Orchestrations (scores and parts), music manuscripts, lead sheets, transcriptions, and sheet music make up some of the Duke Ellington Collection. Also includes concert posters, concert programs; television, radio, motion picture and musical theater scripts; business records, correspondence, awards, as well as audiotapes, audiodiscs, photographs, tour itineraries, newspaper clippings, magazines, caricatures, paintings, and scrapbooks, all from the heyday of Duke Ellington (1920's-1975)

Cite as

Duke Ellington Collection, 1920's-1975, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Fifteen images of agricultural subject mattter, several of which are fruit trees (orange, coconut, pomegranate, and apple) and fields of corn and rice, as well as images of haying and plowing. Three lithoprints and views by Nowack and John P. Soule

Cite as

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

For the Morrisons' book, Barbara Beirne was commissioned to make portraits in 1985 of civil rights and anti-war activists who were famous in the 1960s

Summary

Audio cassettes and transcripts: Oral history interviews conducted in 1985 with a wide variety of Americans regarding their experiences during the 1960s. Portions were published in FROM CAMELOT TO KENT STATE: THE SIXTIES EXPERIENCE IN THE WORDS OF THOSE WHO LIVED IT. (Time Books, 1987)

Photographs: 1985 photographs commissioned from photographer Barbara Beirne. Earlier photographs from a variety of sources, with negatives, many of which are copy negatives rather than originals, in several sizes, incl. 35mm., 2-1/4" x 2-1/4", and 4" x 5"

Cite as

Joan and Robert K. Morrison Collection, 1985-1987, Archives Center, National Museum of American History